LONDON, United Kingdom, 19th April 2016.- A joint project between Mexico and the United Kingdom, led by the University of Strathclyde, will open space technology opportunities to emerging nations.

The Scottish university programme will offer researchers, entrepreneurs and established space companies from emerging economies the prospect of gaining scientific insight of the new space market over the short periods without the extensive investment required for a traditional space mission.

This will be achieved by sharing the building experiences and the development of UKube-1, the UK’s first national CubeSat, which was launched since 2013 and was developed by Clyde Space with support from the University of Strathclyde.

The feasibility of the new project, entitled NANOBED-MX: Mexico Nanosatellite Missions Laboratory, will be carried out in partnership between Clyde Space Ltd, Satellite Applications Catapult, Mexican Space Agency and its affiliate companies, and Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua. The UK element of the project has now received a grant from the UK Space Agency, through its International Partnerships Programme.

In a working-visit from 17th to 20th April, the Director General of the Mexican Space Agency (AEM, for its acronym in Spanish), Francisco Javier Mendieta Jimenez, and the General Coordinator of Scientific Research and Technological Development, Enrique Pacheco Cabrera, they will participate in several working-sessions with UKTI, as well as with aerospace companies, in order to exchange points of view on the cooperation project in this sector, between Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Both representatives attended a welcome dinner hosted by PM Trade Envoy to Mexico, Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury, the agenda also includes a visit to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Surrey Space Centre, in South London.

The Mexico-UK space project besides promoting technological cooperation and development in Mexico, it aims to support the future UK export growth enabled by the expansion of Mexico’s national space goals.

Additionally, the 67th International Astronautical Congress was confirmed, to be celebrated in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, from 26th -30th September, in which the Mexican Space Agency will participate as the decentralised public organism coordinated by the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT), and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).